Charity

The alarming situation with forest fires in Portugal has become very worrying in recent days. In 2017 the OSMTHU has closely followed the tragedy that struck various parts of the country, claiming lives and incinerating vast areas of forests in the Templar regions north of the Tagus river and in the historic Pinewood of Leiria.

This year, the Commandery of Lisbon – Chagas Hill and the Commandery of Laccobriga (based in Lagos, just 25 miles from the main area being consumed at this very moment in the Algarve province) have already got involved with a few volunteers in support of those who struggle to extinguish the alarming threat on the ground. However, the weather is unpredictable and the past has taught us how the situation can change in a heart beat.

We then ask all Templar Globe readers who wish to support the efforts being made on the ground by our team, that include the donation and transport of supplies, water, food and medicines, to make a donation using the following account of the Commandery:

IBAN: PT50 0193 0000 1050 1984 5524 5

All help, regardless of size, is needed and appreciated.

Please, if you donate, send us an email with your name and contacts to osmthu@mail.com so that we can acknowledge your contribution and send you the final REPORT ON THE FIRE APPEAL by September 1st with details on donations and use of proceeds.

Please, pray for us.

For any other information, please contact:

Fr+ José Miguel da Fabiana, Coordination of Operations

miguelfabiana@gmail.com

+351.917500402

osmthu.org

IN THE MEDIA

UPDATE August 7, 22:42

A new car with supplies was dispatched to the theater of operations. The logistic coordination centre of the Order is located in the Headquarters of the Firefighters of Portimão. Ask for João Pedro Silva.

Tomorrow, August 8, Commander Victor Varela Martins will be available along the morning and early afternoon to accept bottled water, energy bars and medicines as he travels from Madrid, Toledo, Talavera de lá Reina, Mérida and Badajoz to Évora. He’s expected to meet the Commanders of Sintra and Arraiolos in Évora at 18:00. If you wish to meet them, you can get in touch with Commander Victor by phone on: +351.93.701.78.36

UPDATE August 7, 23:35

Arriving at the theater of operations is a desolating experience:

“Fiery sparks fall from the sky. The road side catches fire instantly. There are hundreds of small burning spots everywhere. Fire locations are 100 times more in number than the available means. It’s an uneven fight. All that remains is to defend and resist. God help us.”

(…) “We have just given a cell phone to a poor unprotected person who lives near the fire line who had no way of contacting his family. There are many ways to be of help.” (Fr+ João Pedro Silva, KTJ)

UPDATE August 8, 06:47

New report from the theater of operations:

“We safely finished our mission. We spent the night distributing food and water. The situation seems calmer, a good change from the chaos at 11pm. There was a great calm at dawn, the wind was very strong but the temperatures have dropped drastically. We hope the won’t be any new fires throughout the day. ” (Fr + João Pedro Silva, KTJ)

Fr+ João Pedro Silva, KTJ and Brother Fernando Miranda

UPDATE August 8, 12:03

New report from the theater of operations:

“We left the front at 7am convinced that the problem was finally over. Unfortunately, there is news of intense resurfacing and a new front of fire. It’s the wind. The situation is infernal. The temperature at dawn has been around 12 degrees, so that is not the main cause. It’s an endless nightmare. Tonight I saw myself multiple spontaneous ignitions, out of nowhere, at the same time and close to me. It looks like mushrooms of fire popping up from the ground. It was not arson. They were not projections from ongoing flames. I don’t know what it is, but it seems to be alive. Any explanation we may have on this subject is pure speculation. (Fr + João Pedro Silva, KTJ)

UPDATE August 8, 12:05

After departing on his journey from Madrid, the Commander of Lagos, Victor Varela Martins, arrives in Toledo where he collects product donations coordinated with our friends of the Sigillum Templi Group (special thanks to Victor Alfonso Padilla Nieto).

UPDATE August 8, 12:30

Fr+ Jorge Amador, KTJ shares photos of the fight against the flames last night and this morning.

UPDATE August 8, 13:19

Commander Paulo Valente of Sintra confirms that he has collected product donations in Elvas.

UPDATE August 8, 14:30

Commanders Paulo Valente of Sintra and Rui Herdadinha of Arraiolos begin operations to collect product donations at the logistics point selected in Évora.

UPDATE August 8, 18:00

Commander Victor Varela Martins joins the team already in Évora to prepare the cargo and startthe journey to Silves/Portimão.

UPDATE August 8, 18:43

Fire in Enxerim, at the gates of Silves. The fire progressed through several hills from the Odelouca Dam (+ 30km away).

UPDATE August 8, 20:03

Request of the Commander of Lagos:

“Brother Rui Herdadinha and I are on our way to the Silves Firefighters Station with a van full of goods to deliver. Anyone available to help with the load ??? We will arrive around 9pm.” (Fr + Victor Varela Martins, KCTJ)

UPDATE August 8, 21:50

Arrival at Silves Firefighters Station and unloading the goods.

UPDATE August 8, 23:02

The Commander of Arraiolos Rui Herdadinha gives a live interview to Antena 1 national radio.

UPDATE August 9, 00:00

The Order wishes to thank all the Brothers and Sisters who have shown their strength, imagining, organizing and rolling out this short operation, putting on the ground in record time. It should be noted that everyone returned home safely and without incidents. The way our social networks were activated, namely Facebook groups of the Order and of our Brothers and friends from all over the world, allowed us all to have the opportunity to participate and contribute to the success, from the rear to the theater of operations itself. I believe this is a first, both in extension and interaction in the contemporary the Templar world, which shows how relevan the Order still is today if we’re ready and willing.

TEN years ago, it would have been hard to find anyone to question the wisdom and morality of the rich world giving billions of dollars in help to the poor world. A generation reared on Live Aid held these truths to be self-evident. Now, the intellectual trend is all the other way. A stream of economists, politicians and even disillusioned do-gooders have penned powerful critiques of every aspect of aid and the aid industry; men like Paul Collier, William Easterly and Robert Calderisi. Even the high priests of aid, pop stars such as Bono and Bob Geldolf, now preach a much more nuanced and complex gospel than they did in the 1980s.

Yet the intellectual arguments about aid are still conducted largely within a small circle of Western white men. So it is good to welcome a new voice to the debate, and a black African woman too, Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian economist at Goldman Sachs. It is remarkable that so few voices have been raised in Africa, supposedly the main beneficiary of the world’s largesse, about how the aid money should be spent, or even whether it should be received at all.

Unfortunately, Ms Moyo’s contribution ends there, for “Dead Aid” does not move the debate along much. Yes, she has joined the chorus of disapproval—and that in itself might surprise a few diehards who think that Africans should just be grateful for the aid and shut up. But her arguments are scarcely original and her plodding prose makes her the least stylish of the critics.

Moreover, she overstates her case, almost to the point of caricature. There is almost nobody left, even in the aid lobby, who seriously thinks that bilateral (government-to-government) aid is the sole answer to world poverty, as she suggests. “Trade not aid” is only one of several newish mantras among aidniks that seem to have passed her by.

Nonetheless, Ms Moyo is right to argue that the rich world—and Africa—should now focus on other ways of helping poor countries. Ms Moyo shows how some countries, such as Ghana, have successfully tapped the bond markets for funds. She also has good discussions on the virtues of microfinance, venture capital and liberalising trade. By concentrating on these three, African governments might well raise more money on their own; some might even lessen their dependency on aid.

Private investors will always require good governance to ensure that their dollars are not misused. This “trumps all”, argues Ms Moyo. She won’t find many Africans who disagree with that. But getting governments like Nigeria’s or Kenya’s actually to walk the talk has proved a much tougher proposition.

Funded solely by private donations, today the USO received a check for one thousand dollars from The Priory of St. Vincent, Knights Templar.

The money will help fund the USO’s efforts to support the troops and their families stationed here and around the world.

“This is great! This goes a long ways towards our efforts. We do a lot here at Hunter with the troops who deploy and redeploy and we are doing everything we can to support those stationed in this area,” explains Ray Gaster of USO Savannah.

“I think it’s very important to support all of our military. They are doing a tremendous job for our country. They are protecting us our rights our freedoms,” says Hal Murray of The Priory of St. Vincent, Knights Templar.

If you would like more information on how you can support the USO contact (912) 354-5794.

There is a story told about St. Vincent de Paul. Perhaps it’s partly myth, but its challenge is real nonetheless.

Vincent once gave an instruction to his religious community that sounded something like this: “When the demands of life seem unfair to you, when you are exhausted and have to pull yourself out of bed yet another time to do some act of service, do it gladly, without counting the cost and without self-pity, for if you persevere in serving others, in giving yourself to the poor, if you persevere to the point of completely spending yourself, perhaps someday the poor will find it in their hearts to forgive you. For it is more blessed to give than to receive and it is also a lot easier.”

That might sound curious. Why do the poor need to forgive us? For what do we need to be forgiven? Shouldn’t we feel good about serving others?

All of us, I suspect, have a pretty good sense of what he means. We all know there is a certain humiliation in needing to receive, just as there is a certain pride in being able to give.

The things we often complain about are really our greatest blessings: What is worse than being too busy? Having nothing to do. What is more painful than having to give away something we own? Having nothing to give away. What is harder than being dragged out of bed to minister to someone in need? Being the person who is in bed and who needs someone to help him or her.

What is harder than being brought to our knees by the demands of those around us for our time and energy? Being on our knees asking someone else for his or her time and energy. It is more blessed to be able to give than to receive and it is easier. But there’s more.

There is a certain divine power, literally, in being able to give. The one who gives gets to be God or, at very least, to feel like God. That’s not an overstatement. God is the source of all that is, the source of all gift. When we are in a position to give, we mediate divine power and we get to feel that power. Whenever we act like God, we get to feel like God.

Yet, the irony is that our very gifts and strengths, if not given over with the proper attitude, can easily make others feel inferior. It is important to understand this so that we are more careful to not serve others in ways that demean them. It is not automatic, nor easy, to give a gift in a way that does not shame the recipient. Vincent de Paul’s counsel highlights this caution.

But there’s a second lesson here as well. Vincent de Paul meant this too as an antidote to self-pity. For anyone who is in a giving role (a parent, a minister, a teacher, a nurse, a social worker, an advocate for justice, a philanthropist, a politician), there is the temptation to fall into self-pity: “Look at all I am doing! I do all this for others, but nobody is doing anything for me. I am so tired. Is there no end to this? Am I the only one who cares? This is asking more of me than is fair. I have my own problems that I should tend to.”

It is easy, especially when one is tired and frustrated by lack of support, to lose heart, begin to feel sorry for oneself and to eventually feel that we are being unfairly used by others, that we are being asked to give more than our share.

That is very common. Caregivers often feel victimized by those to whom they are giving of themselves. We’ve even coined some terms for this: “compassion fatigue,” “compassion burnout.” Not surprisingly, many good people resent the demands of the poor: the welfare system, the push by various groups for their rights, the pressure for more immigration, the drain that the sick put on the energy and money of our society, the cost of repairing the damage done by youthful vandals and so on.

The temptation is to give up and give in – give up on going the extra mile and give in to the temptation to resign and take care of ourselves.

And so Vincent de Paul’s counsel should be told and retold: If we do not continue to serve the poor, despite our tiredness and self-pity, the poor will never find it in their hearts to forgive us. We need to remember that it is more blessed to give than to receive and it is also easier.

Portraits of Vincent de Paul show him with a strong, warm face, a face that everywhere suggests a comfortable friendliness. He looks like a man you would want over for dinner. But if you had him over for dinner, you might want to make sure that you didn’t complain about the unfairness of life.

José Ramos Horta, President of East-Timor, Nobel Peace Prize winner and a good friend of the Order was shot yesterday in an attempted coup by rebels. He remains in a serious condition. We ask that all members of the Order and friends include Mr. Ramos Horta in their prayers for a fast and complete recovery.

President Ramos Horta first received a delegation of the Order in 2004 in his capacity as (then) Minister of Foreign Affairs of East-Timor. The delegation was comprising the Master Fr+ Antonio Paris, the Chancellor Fr+ Luis de Matos the Secretary Fr+ Ardino and the member of the Portuguese Parliament Nuno da Camara Pereira. Several plans to include East-Timor in our Order’s priorities for relief campaigns and ethical development projects were laid out and we urge all those interested in cooperating to contact the Chancellery.

From the press:

_______________________________

East Timor’s enduring tragedy

(The Boston Globe – Editorial) THE PEOPLE of East Timor have suffered plenty enough already. The tiny East Asian nation passed directly from Portuguese to Indonesian control in 1975, after President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave Indonesia a green light to invade. A quarter century of genocidal repression followed, until Indonesian forces left in 1999.

more stories like thisThis background makes Sunday’s attempted assassinations of East Timor’s two top leaders all the more desolating. President Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was wounded in an attempted coup; Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, a former resistance leader, was unhurt. The episode sends a warning: The world’s newest independent nation must not be allowed to fail.

East Timor’s political leaders must take primary responsibility for the reforms and reconciliation needed to avoid disintegration. Ramos-Horta was trying. He had met with the leader of the attempted coup, former military police chief Alfredo Reinado, seeking a compromise to end a revolt that began in 2006 with a mutiny by 600 soldiers, mostly from the west of the country.

Some 150,000 people fled their homes then, and many of the displaced have yet to return. They fear criminal gangs as well as clashes between armed groups from the east and west of the country. Efforts to end those conflicts and bring rebellious soldiers back into the fold may be more successful now that Reinado has been killed in the attack on Ramos-Horta. Reinado was not the sole leader of the antigovernment forces, but as Sunday’s flamboyant assassination attempts suggest, he was the most zealous to overthrow East Timor’s elected authorities.

A key for reconciliation is to grant amnesty to those military rebels of 2006 who had legitimate grievances while legally pursuing those who took up arms against the government for criminal purposes.

Both reconciliation and reform may be served if a much wider circle of police and military veterans, including those who fought in the anti-Indonesian resistance, are granted pensions. Pensioned officers will owe their livelihood to the government, and they will yield places for new recruits who may then receive properly professional training.

Above all, the government must seek advice from all quarters as it reforms the security services and governance. The United Nations mission to East Timor can help by devoting enough staff and resources to provide the government with substantial help in consulting with disaffected soldiers or police. Because the United Nations administered East Timor after 1999 and international security forces have been keeping the peace since 2006, a failed state in East Timor would also represent a failure of the international community.

_________________________________________________

FACTBOX: Five facts on wounded President Ramos-Horta

(Reuters) – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot in the stomach on Monday when rebel soldiers attacked his home, a military spokesman said.

Here are five facts about the president of the tiny country, which became independent in 2002, more than a quarter of a century after Indonesia annexed the former Portuguese colony.

* Ramos-Horta, 58, was an anti-colonial journalist and activist when Portugal ruled East Timor, and was seen during that period as a fatigue-wearing rebel with bushy black hair.

* He spent years abroad as a spokesman for East Timor’s struggle for independence from Indonesian occupation. Fluent in not just the country’s Tetum language, but also Portuguese, Spanish, French and English, Ramos-Horta lobbied foreign leaders to highlight East Timor’s plight under Jakarta’s often-brutal rule.

* In 1996, having earned the respect and friendship of a number of foreign leaders and with a high profile as a diplomat, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Catholic Bishop Carlos Belo. He returned to East Timor in 1999 after two decades abroad.

* Ramos-Horta took over as prime minister in 2006 after the country’s dominant Fretilin party was blamed for failing to control riots that spun into deadly violence in which more than 30 people died.

* He won a resounding victory in presidential elections last May. Outgoing president and former resistance hero Xanana Gusmao then became prime minister after parliamentary elections in July. The pair are generally seen as allies and somewhat more friendly to international investment and the West than Fretilin stalwarts.

I have been a professional caregiver for twenty years and I continue to learn a valuable life lesson everyday. I’m always amazed how sorrow and pain can bring such wonderful gifts as wisdom, patience, insight and love. I think it is very easy to make the mistake of tunnel visioning on the tasks we have at hand. We get so caught up in the daily necessities and routines that we forget or ignore the very things that can bring us joy and teach us many valuable lessons.

I was hired to care for a very special lady. I was to prepare meals for her, make sure she took her medication properly, do light housekeeping, and provide transportation to and from the market and her doctor’s appointments. All of these tasks were important and necessary so that she could remain living independently. Our focus was just that — helping her to remain independent.

It was on a cold rainy night, she had just crawled into bed, and she turned her little head and smelled her pillow. I noticed tears running from her eyes. She looked up at me and said “It’s been such a long time since I’ve had clean sheets; I love the smell of fresh clean sheets. I couldn’t change the sheets myself anymore, I didn’t know how to manage hanging on to my walker and changing the sheets at the same time. Thank you so much for changing my sheets.”

Such a simple pleasure as smelling clean sheets brought such great joy to her life. That was the day I learned unconditional care. The next day we sat down and talked about what was important to her, what she liked, and how she had done things all these years. The key point learned here was we were trying to help her remain independent, assisting her with the things she had always done for herself . . . but we forgot to ask how she liked those things done, and what was important to her.

She was the sunshine in my life. I never knew how much I would enjoy and learn from her sharing her life experiences with me. Meal time was not just another chore or necessity of life; it was an event to her. She showed me all of the beautiful and delicate dishes she had collected all of her life. Each one had a special story and held fond memories for her. Her personal favorite was the oblong dishes she used for individual ears of corn. She loved lots of melted butter, not margarine, smothering her ear of corn. Her mother had given her the corn dishes as a wedding present sixty-five years ago. Not a day goes by now that when I eat corn on the cob or climb into my bed which has fresh clean sheets, that I don’t see her beautiful little smiling face, so full of joy and hope from such simple pleasures.

I’m so thankful for the lessons I have learned . . . the lessons I almost missed because I forgot to slow down to look and see the beauty that was right in front of me.

The Templar Globe

The Templar Globe is the only official news source of the Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolimitani Universalis (OSMTHU). It is under the direct supervision of the International Chancellery and the Magisterial Council.
It has been in continuous existence since 2008 with close to 1.5 million readers.
Send your news, photos, emials and equiries to osmthu@mail.com

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Novidade: Rotas Templárias

Curso Livre – Templários e Templarismo – Universidade Lusófona

1 Corinthians 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. We should start by going back to the […]

FIRE APPEAL The alarming situation with forest fires in Portugal has become very worrying in recent days. In 2017 the OSMTHU has closely followed the tragedy that struck various parts of the country, claiming lives and incinerating vast areas of forests in the Templar regions north of the Tagus river and in the historic Pinewood […]

A substantial part of the ceremony of adoubement is conducted privately, only accessible to members of the Order. The act of adoubement itself, however, is public. It becomes a commitment not only to the Order but also to the world. Having this in mind, it’s not easy to describe the complete ceremony as it is […]

Master Antonio Paris with Fr+ Luis de Matos, Chancellor and GP Portugal The solitary Knight is often depicted in old chivalry tales as the perfect image of wisdom and valour. Indeed, each Knight and Dame of the Templar Order today should aim to live up to that expectation. But the Order becomes stronger when two […]

During Pentecost celebrations in Arraiolos, Portugal, in May 2018, Master Antonio Paris, in the presence of his Chancellor and Seneschal, sign the Declaration of Arraiolos, effectively resuming the term for which he had been elected in 2004, in order to prepare the free, universal and transparent elections of a new Master and the unity of […]

Type “Holy Grail” into Google and … well, you probably don’t need me to finish that sentence. The sheer multiplicity of what any search engine throws up demonstrates that there is no clear consensus as to what the Grail is or was. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of people out there claiming to […]

When you reach the top of Thun Castle and look out of the turret windows you are treated to some spectacular views, especially if the weather is perfect. When we visited Thun in Switzerland, Sept 2018, the weather was, but all was not perfect in the early years of the castle, and right up until the 19th century…….the turrets were […]

We had seen Thun Castle from a distance, from other visits to Switzerland, so I was really looking forward to exploring the interior on our visit in September 2018. After I had taken photos of the exterior for my previous post, we paid our money, and entered the castle. The castle museum is housed in the five floors […]

We’ve been blogging at MedievalFragments for nearly two-and-a-half years, but like all good things, it has to come to an end sometime! The project, Turning Over a New Leaf, is coming, in part, to a conclusion, with two of its … Continue reading →

By Erik Kwakkel (@erik_kwakkel) I love the last page of the medieval book. Not because it means that my research of a particular manuscript is almost completed, but because the last page often provides information pertaining to the origins of the object – information not … Continue reading →